Morvan

The Monts du Morvan (a name of Celtic origin meaning "black hill") are a range of hills of medium height between the Loire and the Saône rising to 900 m/3,000ft in the peak of Haut-Folin. On Mont Beuvray (821 m/2,694ft) Vercingetorix, Caesar's most dangerous adversary in Gaul, summoned an assembly of Gallic chieftains in 52 B.C. to secure their agreement to a common effort against the Roman invaders.

For centuries Morvan was the sole supplier of wood to Paris, and the Canal du Nivernais was built in 1842 to provide a convenient means of transport; 178km/108miles long, it has 110 locks and three tunnels. The granite hills of Morvan have now been replanted with trees, and the Morvan Nature Park, established in 1970, takes in 173,000 hectares/427,000 acres of the hills, with the valleys and gorges, the streams and the numerous lakes which pattern the landscape.